Christie urges Britain to look forward

Tuesday 15 January 2008 00:02 BST

Linford Christie has called on British athletics to move on from the Dwain Chambers drugs controversy and concentrate on winning medals.

Britain's most successful sprinter unashamedly side-stepped the issue of whether Chambers, who has returned from a two-year drugs ban, should represent his country in next month's World Indoor Championships in Valencia.

"There are a lot of opinions out there. No-one really needs mine," he said.

The Great Britain selectors picked Chambers after he won the 60 metres in last weekend's trials in Sheffield - however, their decision was made largely because they did not want to face the possibility of a costly legal action for breaching their own rules.

Despite being able to run in Spain, Chambers is still restricted by a lifetime Olympic ban which prevents him from competing in this summer's Games in Beijing.

"Selectors do what they need to do and the athletes go out there and perform. That's the way it is," said Christie, who intends to be in Beijing as coach to British sprinter Christian Malcolm.

He urged British athletes, officials and fans to "go out and do the positive thing and focus on what they need to do".

Christie stated: "We spend the majority of our time talking about the minority of people but we should spend the majority of the time talking about the majority of our people. That's where it's all gone wrong.

"We've got Beijing and Valencia so let's be positive for a change.

"In the sport, if you've got an injury and think negatively it never heals but if you can be positive you can heal yourself and that's what we've got to do now. We need to be positive and heal, it's all about healing now. Just let it go."